Ohetstophbe lewis and benjamin evans



O. LEWIS 8v Manufacture Fig.1..

B. EVANS. of Shovels,

Patented July 27,1880.

Inventors: Uhri s'topl er L ew is B ewjjamin L vans UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

ASSIGNORS OF ONE-THIRD OF THEIR RIGHT TO H.

OF SAME PLACE.

D. TURNEY,

'MANUFACTURE OF SHOVELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 230,558, dated July 27; 1880.

Application filed November 17, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, CHRISTOPHER Lnwrs and BENJAMIN EVANS, of the city of Columbus and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Process of Manufacturing Shovels or Spades, and blanks for the same and other tools, which enables us to utilize old steel rails and the crop ends of steel rails from the steel-works, the articles manufactured by our process having the advantage of being all steel, and also of being easily and cheaply made without welds or joints of any kind, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to that class of processes employed in the economic conversion of old, worn, and refuse steel into new articles of manufacture.

In carrying out our invention a section of a railroad-rail is taken, its flanges folded, and the section rolled or drawn out under the hammer ta the required thickness in its respective parts for the implement or tool to be made, the upper or head part of the section of rail being converted into the body or blade of the implement.

The accompanying drawings represent the cross-section of a railroad-rail and the changes it passes through in being made into a shovel according to our process.

Figure 1 is the cross-section of a railroad rail containing, say, about three inches of the length of the rail, the letter a representing the flanged bot-tom of the rail. This section should be properly heated before being bent, or preliminary to the folding and forging operations.

Fig. 2 is the cross-section of a rail with a notch or recess formed or cut in the bottom between the two flanges, when desired, to facilitate the reduction of the metal to the proper shape.

Fig. 3 represents the flanges b of the piece of metal folded preparatory to constructing the shank of a s lygyel or other implement, and this folding of the flanges and thus forming a tool-blank is an important step in our process.

Fig. 4 shows a plate forged or drawn out from the piece of metal after the bending of the flanges and ready to be formed into a shovel by proper shaping-dies; and this forging out of the metal is another important step in our process. In forging out this plate the two flanges are drawn out to the width required to embrace the handle of a shovel. These two flanges form the shank, and the shovel-handle is to be secured in its socket between them.

Fig. 5 is intended to represent a shovel blade and shank completed in one piece and provided with a handle, 0.

By this process and the employment of the ordinary appliances for metal-working old, worn, and refuse material is taken, its original shape and quality for other and costly purposes availed ot', and the material easily and cheaply converted into new and useful articles of manufacture. V

Other articles besides shovels and spades may be manufactured by simply varying the size or weight of the section of old rail to correspond to the amount of metal required to compose the implement. and by varying the forging operation so as to produce the shape of the article required from the blank, Fig. 3. Thus hoes, rakes, picks, forks, and the like can be manufactured.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- 1. The tool-blank formed from a section of 'a railroad-rail having folded flanges, substantially as described and shown.

2. The process herein described of forming a shovel or spade blank, which consists in taking a heated section of a railroad-rail, bending down the flanges,as described and shown, and then forging the whole into plate form for the subsequent application of suitable shaping-dies, substantially as described.

3. The process of manufacturing from old steel rails and crop ends of steel rails tools and implements, substantially as described, which process consists in taking a' suitable section of a rail, suitably heating it, then bending its flanges, as shown, and then forging it into the required shape of the implement, substantially as described.

CHRISTOPHER LEWIS. BENJAMIN EVANS.

Witnesses:

R. H. COTTON, JOHN F. MOFADDEN.

[L. s.] [L. s.] 

